Quality of your spices?

I use all Pensey's spices... I call tell the difference from any of the supermarket spices I have used.... So I for one am a believer in quality spices.... That also goes for quality Kosher salt and good sugar...

Another Penzey's lover here. Won't buy anything else.

Penzy's daughter has The Spice Shop. Very similar and they grind their own. No mass produced stuff that they buy from a third party.They are smaller than Penzy's and probably a bit fresher. Check out their web site. Both are excellent places.

www.thespicehouse.com

I often buy bulk organic spices for my rubs and general cooking, typically a half pound or a pound at a time for the ones I use most frequently, especially different types of ground chiles. Some of the ground chiles I use in my rubs are rarely found in grocery stores.

The better quality brands from the grocery store, such as the Spice Island and McCormick herbs and spices that come in small glass bottles, I have found to be of good quality. They do tend to be rather pricey compared to the products offered by some of the online boutique spice shops.

I'll buy certain bulk spices from warehouse stores. Costco's Tellicherry black pepper is a favorite of mine. It is wonderfully pungent and aromatic, and I prefer it over most other black pepper I've tried. The granulated garlic, powdered onion, and dehydrated onion from either Costco or Sam's are also fine for me. I don't buy any herbs from those sources.

I don't buy things like pickling spice or spice blends from anyone, because I make my own.

The main thing for me is that herbs and spices I use be reasonably fresh. The fresher the better. I'll throw out a jar that has been sitting opened in the cupboard for more than a year.

I just ordered a half dozen spices from SpicesEtc. They also had Greek Oregano so I ordered a quart.

Grocery store is the last place I'll buy spices, only in an emergency.

I probably buy from 5 or 10 different online merchants, depends on what I'm looking for.

Guess I'm lucky that I have a spice shop across the bay over in Tampa called V-Spicery. Been getting my supplies from her for a while now and at very good prices.

quote:

Originally posted by Papa Deuce:
Just curious, as I am preparing to open a spice shop - I think. Do you use top notch fresh spices when you make your rubs..

I certainly appreciate better spices. There's no spice-only store in my area so I order online. Prefer dried leaf, seed or nut to toast/grind myself when I can get it, the fresher the better. If someone had a shop nearby that had quality stuff, I would probably use it fairly often - buying smaller amounts to keep fresher on hand.

Good luck with your venture. Send me some samples

Papa Deuce--

Once you get the store open and established, have someone create an internet site for you. A lot of business can come from a little effort in cyberspace.

I agree with Pags, to get the most out of your store sell online, some of the best places are miles away and if you use fair shipping costs with good quality spices it won't take long to get recognized as a reputable place to shop.

Call your place "Spice World", and when someone googles "spices", it should show up early.

Before retiring and becoming "retarded" and buying a cafe & tea room, I was a sales manager for an industrial instrumentation company. I visited and instrumented a bunch of spice manufacturers, to include McCormicks and I would venture to say, based only on my observations, that high volumn retailers like Sams and Costco have the freshest spices on the market. They buy them, they sell them and, if they don't sell, trash them.

Smaller operations can not afford to do this and will hold spices longer. Again, just my observation.

Mack

Probably a good observation. The good news is volume retailers carry pretty fresh stuff. Bad news is their assortment is limited. I get the basics from them, and the majority of the rest online.